Shockwave Stomp

A pretty standard attack by heavy characters in video games, the Shockwave Stomp is where they smash on the ground and send out a wave of energy that causes damage to their enemies.

While often the side effect of the Ground Pound it can be done in various ways, using fists, hammers (or any other weapon for that matter), stomping or just by concentrating really hard. The attack is most likely to be seen as a coloured wave but sometimes you'll see the ground itself bubble over like somebody flipping a carpet.

The goal of the slam effect is usually to make distance between you and the opponent or to follow up with an attack which requires a charge-up time to perform while you are knocked down/back. The nastier videogames can have the shockwave instantly kill you for failing to see it coming and moving out of the way.

Examples of Shockwave Stomp include:

Anime and Manga

• A favorite attack of Accelerator from A Certain Magical Index, ranging from stomps that send the earth and any enemy in front of him into the air to the traditional wide-range earthquake types that cause anyone nearby to fall or get hit with debris.

Comic Books

• Stompa of the Female Furies in the DC Universe.

Film

• The Matrix: Neo, when he does his Dynamic Entry against the Smiths.

Literature

• Morgan does this in one of the Dresden Files books via earth evocation, sending an entire mob of zombies flying.

Live-Action TV

• Kamen Rider OOO gains this power when he uses the Zou (Elephant) Core Medal.

Tabletop Games

• The Stomp psionic power from Dungeons & Dragons knocks enemies prone and does nonlethal damage to them.

Video Games

Action Adventure

• This is the first part of the team attack in Beyond Good and Evil—your partner creates a shockwave, sending all ground-bound enemies into the air. (The second half involves you attacking them, which allows you to throw them into the wall.)
• In the video game based on the fifth arc of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Diavolo's stand King Crimson creates shockwaves by punching the ground. As the video shows, you must use your own stand to block them.
• Ganondorf can do this with his fist in Ocarina of Time. Aside from inflicting damage, it causes parts of the floor to collapse.
  • The Imprisoned from Skyward Sword is so big and powerful that it does this simply by walking casually.
• Prototype Alex Mercer can perform several variations of this, including a literal stomp. Dropping from sufficient heights, he automatically causes a shockwave on impact, but using special moves enhances the damage many times over. They can be most powerful moves in the game, but hellishly hard to aim.
• This is one of the first attacks gained by Eddie Riggs in Brutal Legend, and the attack/knockback radius and damage can be increased by switching to the Super Shakers for Clementine. Eddies' first real combo, it is done by using Clementine and the Seperator (A and X, respectively) simultaneously.

Action Game

• Rhino does this in the Ultimate Spider-Man game.
• All of the bosses in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow seem to have this attack. Some harder more common enemies also occasionally like to do this too. This game really to do this to counter-attack spamming of the dodge-roll.
• The sumo dolls in Mendel Palace do this as a Counter Attack.
• An unlockable gadget in Batman: Arkham City stores the kinetic energy when you dive-bomb into the ground to be released as a shockwave.

Beat'Em Up

• This is one of Barabbas' most annoying attacks in Oni, because the ground shockwave can't be dodged by jumping over it.
• Any sufficiently sized enemy can use this in The Dishwasher, either by jumping a story or two into air or just putting their very large foot down. These shockwaves, rather than looking like the standard effect, look like sparks, which might explain why they can hit you while you're off the ground.

Driving Game

• John Torque in Vigilante 8 does it with a large speaker in the boot of his car that creates a circular wave in the ground and invokes physics to flip cars into the air. It's a bit hard to use because if you're moving at any decent speed you overtake your own wave and get smashed up worse than your opponents.

Fighting Game

• In Super Smash Bros.. Donkey Kong can clap against the ground, hitting nearby enemies.
  • Yoshi and Bowser do this with a Hip Drop attack.
• In almost any game starring The Incredible Hulk, the Hulk will have an attack that does this.
• Night Terror in Soul Calibur 3 does this when stabbing the ground. Several other characters' moves use tremors to stun the opponent as well.
• Potemkin's Slide Head in Guilty Gear. No fancy ground pounding here: he just stands rigidly and tips over face-first.
• Both Goro Daimon, and later, Chang Koehan of KOF are capable of this. Goro smashes the ground with a two-handed slap, while Chang stomps with a single foot. Interestingly, the move where Chang smashes his Iron Ball on the ground generally do not generate shockwaves(they still hurt, obviously).
• Jinpachi in Tekken 5 has a variety of this, which stuns you regardless of whether you're on the ground.
  • Tengu in Dead or Alive 2 has a similar move.

First-Person Shooter

• In Metroid Prime, Elite Pirates and the Omega Pirate have an attack that releases shockwaves the player must jump over. Meta Ridley also has a similar ability, where he jumps up and generates a shockwave. And the final boss produces flame waves that function the same way.
  • Ingsmashers in Prime 2 also do this (not surprising as they're essentially Elite Pirates with a new skin). So does Quadraxis.
  • Several bosses in Prime 3: Corruption also does this.
• The Gargantulas in Half Life can do this. It moves in a linear fashion and is stopped by walls.
• In the Light Side ending of Jedi Academy, Tavion does this, although she hits the ground with the Staff of Ragnos.
• Sledge in Borderlands, with his Weapon Of Choice. His shotgun is also the only weapon in the game with bonus knockback on it, making him an example of the "creating distance" type (odd since he is a close range fighter).
• Deus Ex Human Revolution: Adam Jensen can pull this off when falling from great heights with the Icarus Landing System.
• In Turok 2, some of the Purr-Lin can do this.

Hack and Slash

• Diablo 3's barbarian will have this as an attack.
• "Earthquake", one of the best special powers in Ninety-Nine Nights II, does this spending out multiple shock-waves in all directions.

MMORPGs

• Multiple bosses in World of Warcraft have an ability like this. Usually melee classes have to run out of range when the boss starts casting it. Sometimes the shockwave deals no damage but instead interrupts spellcasting of targets hit by it.
  • Also the Tauren racial Warstomp, albeit only in a small radius and it doesn't deal damage by itself.
  • Protection Warriors get this spell as their final ability. A cone shaped wave that stuns and damages enemies in front of the warrior.
• Phantasy Star Online the Dragon type boss does this.
• Both City of Heroes and Champions Online have this as a staple of super strong characters. The former lets its players represent it with a Shockwave Slam, the latter may be charged up to a Ground Pound.
• Guild Wars 2: The elementalist skill Churning Earth, and the warrior skill Stomp.

Platform Game

• Bowser in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy. The Koopalings in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. The Shake King in Wario Land Shake It.
  • Roy and Ludwig shake the screen when they jump in SMB3.
  • Two of the koopalings do this in Super Mario World. Yoshi can do a miniature version of this if he's a yellow shell or is yellow and has any shell.
    • Mario himself can also do this with a cape feather, by diving into the ground after gliding with it.
  • Baby Bowser can do this in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. You can as well during that battle.
  • In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Queen Bean will send out three in quick succession.
  • It's possible for the players to do this in New Super Mario Bros. Wii multiplayer. If two or more players ground pound at the same time, it sends out a shockwave that kills everything on-screen.
    • Morton and Roy as well.
• Donkey Kong 64: Army Dillo and the boss of Gloomy Galleon (red/jump and blue/outrun, respectively); the Kasplats have shockwaves color-coded to whose blueprint piece they guard; even the Kongs themselves can do it (without the jumping part) once you've learned how.
  • Donkey Kong Country Returns has a couple of bosses that;ll dive on the ground and send a fast (but colourful) shock-wave towards you.
• In Iji, the final boss does this all the time, but one is deadlier than the others, putting Iji in range for his One-Hit Kill Wave Motion Gun.
• A boss in one Spyro game did this.
• Egg Walker in Sonic Adventure did this.
  • Egg Libra, Ghost Pendulum, and Capt. Whisker throughout the Sonic Rush Series.
  • Dark Titans in Sonic Unleashed do this too.
• In Psychonauts, this is one of Kochamura's skills: The "HARD TO AVOOOOID... AREA ATTACK!" So, instead of avoiding it, which really is hard, you can just block it with your recently-found Shield power.
  • This is also actually one of Raz's basic attacks.
• The Dragon War-Beasts in obscure platformer Scaler punch the ground to create knockback shockwaves.
• Murray's 'Thunderflop' in the later Sly Cooper games starts off as just a simple belly-flop Ground Pound. An upgrade later on in the games allows him to add a ring of fire on landing.
• The final boss in Wario Land Shake It can do this. He can also do it by simply punching the ground hard enough.

Real Time Strategy

• The Warcraft 3 Shockwave spell goes in a straight line, but otherwise fits the requirements for this trope. Also Thunder clap (slows enemies all around) and War Stomp (stuns enemies all around).
• Dawn of War 2 has a few examples, most notably the Ork Warboss (who stomps the ground real hard like) and the Space Marine Dreadnaught (who slams its mighty fist into the ground).

Role-Playing Game

• Frequently used by bigger enemies in the Kingdom Hearts series. The first game alone has Cerberus, Dragon Maleficent, the Rock Titan and possibly others.
  • Most of the Armor family in 358/2 Days. Also the Cubes, Darkside, and couple of the Tailbunker types. Oh, and most of the Dual Blades. Yeah, 358/2 Days is big into this.
• Trolls do this attack in Fable II but more of the straight line attack.
• A lot of artes in the Tales (series) like Destruction Field create these by having the user strike the ground with their weapon. Large monster types like golems and dragons frequently use them a means of offense, as well.
• The elephants from The World Ends With You. Repeatedly. And it will interrupt whatever you're doing.
• In many of the 3-D Pokémon spinoffs, this is how the attack "Earthquake" is shown as working.
  • In Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, Regigigas creates damaging shockwaves with every step.
    • Regigigas does the same thing in Guardian Signs. This is even more annoying now that, rather than simply fighting it as a Bonus Boss, you must fight Regigigas during the main story.
• You get the impression that Phase bosses from the first four .hack//G.U. games are doing this. It's an area of effect spell cast when they slam into the ground (the first Phase gets a minor reprieve as his first form has a staff which he pounds; the others play it straight, and the last one does it three times in a row).
• Ogres and golems use this frequently in Dragon Age.
• The animation for the 'Earth Tremor' Star attack in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door shows it using this.
• In the flash game Battle for Wayland Keep, one of the hero's abilities is to create a shockwave that pushes back and damages enemies.

Shoot'Em Up

• Hong Meiling does this as one of her attacks in Touhou Hisoutensoku. She also does this quite often during her cutscenes with other characters, mainly as a Shout-Out to more mainstream fighting games.
  • It says in the skill description that she is manipulating chi to do this.

Survival Horror

• The fat monsters in The Suffering can do this with their flails, in somewhat of a surprise to any player who's just encountered them and is wondering how they can damage him even when they miss. You can avoid the effect by jumping right before the flails hit the ground.

Third-Person Shooter

• Happens in Fracture with the Bullfight Boss.
• This is a defensive ability available to Devastators/Havocs in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Multiplayer, useful for stunning and disorienting enemies. Perks can increase the speed of the animation, and/or the range and damage.
• In Mass Effect 3, the Vanguard now has the fist slam variety with the class-specific power "Nova". For one with less power (and less dangers of use), the Vanguard's sprinting heavy melee attack also does something similar.

Wide Open Sandbox

• Bad Girl, a dainty little thing with a penchant for hitting men around the head with a baseball bat, does this in No More Heroes. Jeane can also do this despite being very lightweight.

Web Comics

• The Monster In The Darkness does this in Order of the Stick here, making a literal earthquake.

Western Animation

• This is Blackout's specialty in Transformers Animated - he can knock out electronics by stomping (and bring them back online by stomping again), hence the name.
  • G1 had the virtual poster child for this trope: "Rumble! Activate pile drivers!" BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! For a little punk, Rumble could do a lot of damage.
    • Sludge from the Dinobots could do a seismic stomp, too.